01 Meditation Panel Preface.indd - United Nations Day of Vesak 2013

Conference
In the DESM, the meditation on the external four great elements is the XIVc contemplation;
the meditation on the internal or personal four great elements is the XV contemplation, and the last
part of the XIVb contemplation in the text. The following are some of the practical instructions
given in the DESM:
“The body originated from the Four Great Elements. It is dwelling in the same village of
the six entrances.” “The practitioner should not be nding pleasure in too much speech, but retire
into solitude and seclusion to contemplate the emptiness of all the dharmas. Within the emptiness
of these dharmas, there is no earth, no water, no re and wind. Rpa- skandha is upside down, and
arises from the illusions. Vedan-skandha comprises causes and conditions; it arises from the deeds
(karmas). Samjñ-skandha is up side down; it is not suspending. Vijñna-skandha is not seen;
it comprises the karmic causes and conditions; it produces the seeds of craving and attachment.
In such ways, he meditates on the body. The earth element came to exist from the appearance of
emptiness (); the appearance of emptiness is also empty. What is there solidity or hardness that
could be considered as the earth element? In this way he can infer and analyze the earth element….”
While he contemplates thus upon the four elements, the concept of “I” or “mine,” “man” or
“woman” will disappear. The mind will be become established in the thought that there are merely
elements, without owner, without entity.
“Again, the practitioner should contemplate that the res outside the body originate from
the causes and conditions. When there are the necessary causes and conditions they arise; with
the cessation or separation of these conditions they come to cease. When these res are produced,
they do not come from some other place; when they disappear, they are not going to be stored up in
another place. They are illusory, decaying and never ceasing.”
“Again, the practitioner should contemplate on that ‘the external water elements of the body
are the running waters in the rivers, in the oceans and lakes, so on. When those water and other are
produced, they do not come from some other place; when they disappear, they are not going to be
stored up in another place… The wind elements are united with the space (or atmosphere); the wind
is originated from causes and conditions. The wind elements are neither in the body, nor outside of
the body, and nor in the middle. Owning to the upside-down mind (or the perverted thought), they
are seen.’ When one is thinking of this, the external wind elements do not arise.”
“The practitioner should contemplate the earth elements in the body. The earth elements
in the body are the bones, teeth, nails, hairs, intestines, stomach, belly (or abdomen), liver, heart,
lungs, so on; all those solid things are the earth elements.” The practitioner should know all the earth
elements in the body. One should know that “the bones become having not been before; having
become they cease to be;” so are the water elements, the re elements, the wind elements in the body.
The practitioner also should know that: “The external Earth Elements are impermanent;
so are the Earth Elements in the body. “The external res without suspending; how can the warm
of res in the body be last long?” “The external water elements are impermanent; their force can
not last long. The water elements in the body are also impermanent, because they are dependant on
[the external water elements] as causes and conditions.”
“The external wind elements are impermanent; their force can not last long because they
originate from causes and conditions; they come to cease when their causes and conditions come to
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